The story of my life after graduation.
The year 1959/60 was my final academic year at Makerere college, which was scheduled to end in March 1960, when we would sit for our final examinations.
But back home in Tanganyika, that was also the year when the constitutional progress to independence gained greater momentum. It is during this year that the first ever general elections to be held in Tanganyika were held; in ten large Constituencies which had been established for that purpose. According the Administrator of those elections, “the elections could not be held simultaneously throughout the country, because it was too great an administrative undertaking”. Thus, the said elections were held in two separate phases; in October 1958, and in February 1959.
The ten Constituents were listed as follows:- 1, Dar es Salam; 2. Eastern Province; 3. Lake Province South East; 4. Lake Province West; 5. Southern Highlands Province; 6. Southern Province; 7. Western Province; 8. Tanga Province; 9. Northern Province; 10. Central Province. They were designated as “multi-member constituencies” , with each constituency required to elect three members: one African, one European, and one Asian. Several political parties actively participated in the said general elections; but TANU, and the TANU supported candidates of all the three racial groups, were the only winners.
Thereafter, constitutional progress to independence proceeded at a very rapid pace. The Colonial Administration made arrangements for another general election to be held in September 1960; and the number of Constituencies was increased to Seventy-one.
When the elections were held, TANU, again, easily won all the seats. (except the Mbulu constituency seat, which was won by a TANU independent candidate, one Herman Sarwatt; who had stood as an independent candidate against TANU’s unpopular, officially sponsored candidate). A manifest demonstration of a properly functioning Parliamentary democracy.
The unusual advance offer of a Government job.
It was under such exciting political conditons, that I entered my final academic year at Makerere College where, just before the end of that year, something unexpected, and rather unusual, happened to me. That was the ‘advance offer’ to me, of a senior Civil Service job, and from the Head of the Tanganyika Government himself !
What happened was that the Chief Secretary of the Tanganyika Government, Mr. John Fletcher Cooke; had requested our Principal of Makerere College, Mr. Bernard de Bunsen, to recommend to him one final year student from Tanganyika, who could be considered for the senior job of Clerk of the Tanganyika National Assembly.
As the Principal himself told me when he called me to his office to deliver the news: “He (the Principal), and the said Chief Secretary, had been college mates in their country England , and they therefore knew each other quite well. And further that the Chief Secretary had just called from Dar es Salaam, to ask him to recommend one suitable Tanganyika student, who was in his final year, who could be considered for training for the sensitive post of Clerk of the National Assembly. The Chief Secretary had told him that in view of the fast approaching Tanganyika’s independence, this was a sensitive position which needed to be Africanized as quickly as possible, mainly for the reason that there was a pending general election (scheduled for 1960), which would, no doubt, be won by a large majority of African members. It will therefore be embarrassing for these members to be serviced by a non-African Administrator in the National Assembly. Hence the urgency to Africanize that post. And that the Chief Secretary had emphasized the need to recommend the right candidate”.
Thereafter the amiable Principal disclosed that he had recommended me, “because I was the only candidate who fits the bill”, and continued thus: “ I have several good reasons for picking you. One, you are in your final year, which is what the Chief Secretary wanted. Two, I sought and obtained reports, that you have already acquired some experience in the field of Administration, from having worked on a temporary basis in our College Administration. Three, I have also asked for academic reports from your professors, and have been assured that you are most likely going to pass your final examinations, which is a necessary condition. And four, in your role as Secretary General of the Students’ Organization, you must have acquired some useful leadership skills, which will enable you to work comfortably with the political leaders in your Legislature”. He paused, and asked for my response. I quickly said that, given the opportunity, I was ready and willing to serve in that capacity. He nodded, and told me that the Chief Secretary himself wanted to interview me in Dar es Salaam as soon as possible, and that he had sent a Government ‘ travel warrant’ for my travel there and back to the College, to complete the remainder of my course.
Wow. I was thrilled, and literary overwhelmed by this unexpected, but most welcome good news. I left his office, and started preparing for the journey to Dar es Salaam for the interview. Upon its conclusion, the Chief Secretary was apparently fully satisfied by my performance; because he told me to report for work immediately after completing the examinations, in order to start what he described as “training on the job”. But he made it clear that my formal employment would depend entirely on my passing the final examinations. The final examinations were eventually done and completed in March, 1960; and, as instructed, I went directly to Dar es Salaam, to report for work. Starting my Public Service career.
I duly reported for duty at the Speaker’s office on 14th April, 1960; and that was the beginning of what turned out to be a fairly long, and varied, distinguished Public Service career, which covered a total period of just over fifty years; during which I was given the rare opportunity to serve my country in a variety of top leadership positions at the national level, in the varied fields of Public Administration, Academics, Politics, and Parliament.
When I joined, the Speaker’s Office was a very small establishment, comprising only four ‘permanent and pensionable’ staff members, and one Messenger. The permanent staff members were: 1. The Clerk of the National Assembly; 2. His Personal Secretary; 3. The Clerk Assistant; and 4. The general office Clerk. I was taken on as temporary “Clerk-Assistant (Training Grade)”, pending receipt of the examination results. The Speakership was just a respectable, non-paid, honorary position; and the Speaker actually had no office in the Speaker’s Office. Unfortunately, my mother also died during that same moth.
But I must have started pretty well in my new job; because, on 20th May, 1960, the Chief Secretary himself made the following encouraging comments, in his speech inside the House, while adjourning that day’s sitting of the Legislative Council: “This also gives me the opportunity of extending a welcome to the latest recruit to the Legislative Council of Tanganyika. I am refrring to Mr. Pius Msekwa, who has now come to play his part in our deliberations, and whose voice I personally find extremely attractive when he reads out the Bills (Applause). I wish him the best of good fortune as Clerk of the House in training; and I hope that one of these days, I will come back and see him presiding at the Table here” (Applause).
The September 1960 general elections.
On the political front, the first major political event which I witnessed, was the holding of the crucial (pre-independence) 1960 general elections for Members of Parliament, which the Government Chief Secretary had referred to, in his communication with the Makerere College. This was this election that was going to determine whether, or not, TANU would win a sufficient number of parliamentary seats, for it to qualify for the right to form the first independence Government of Tanganyika. Hence, for TANU, and especially for its leader Mwalimu Nyerere, it was a “do or die” business undertaking; despite the fact that the party’s huge success in the previous 1958/9 elections had instilled a huge boost to its members’ morale and self-confidence.
The number of constituents had been increased from the previous ten, to seventy-one. At the Speaker’s Office, we were therefore busy expanding the seating capacity of the Legislative Council meeting chamber, Karimjee Hall, in order to create enough space for the increased number of the incoming Legislators.
As we have already seen above, when the elections were eventually held, and the results announced, TANU had secured victory in seventy of the seventy-one constituencies , its candidates having been elected unopposed in fifty-eight of those constituencies. Mwalimu Nyerere was thus invited by the Governor to form a new Government, which was constitutionally designated as “Responsible Government”, headed by Nyerere himself as Chief Minister. But the Cabinet of Ministers was to be under the Chairmanship of the Governor.
However, after that, constitutional development continued at an even more rapid pace, such that on 1st May, 1961, the “Responsible Government” was re-designated “ Internal Self-Government”, and Mwalimu Nyerere’s title was re-designated as “Prime Minister”, who also became the Chairman of the cabinet of Ministers, replacing the Governor.
At the same time, the Legislative Council was re-designated, and became the “National Assembly”, or “Parliament”; the two words being used interchangeably. The final stage in the country’s constitutional development process, was, of course, the granting of independence to Tanganyika, on 9th December, 1961. But we will return to that historic event some time later.
With regard to myself, the awaited examination results came out in June 1960, which showed that I had passed in the “first class” category; I was immediately appointed substantive “ Clerk-Assistant of the National Assembly; and thus joined the “permanent and pensionable” category of staff in the Tanganyika Civil Service.
I was assigned the particular task of processing the Legislative Bills which were being brought by the Government to the Legislative Council for enactment into laws, most of which were designed to provide the requisite legal regime for Tanganyika’s independence; but they did not include the Bill for the fundamental Tanganyika’s Independence Constitution, for which, a separate procedure had been made, for its enactment in London, by the British Parliament.
In the meantime, because of the critical shortage of trained Tanganyika Africans who could effectively replace those non-African personnel in the Public Service who, for a variety of personal reasons, might want to leave the country upon the attainment of independence, Prime Minister Julius Nyerere issued a formal circular letter, dated 1st May, 1961, and signed by him personally ; which he addressed to each of the expatriate staff individually, urging those who were prepared to remain in the Public Service of Tanganyika after independence, to do so.
In the light of this open invitation from the Prime Minister himself; Geoffrey Hucks, the Clerk of the National Assembly, became one of the expatriate Administrative officers who willingly opted to remain in the Service of Tanganyika after independence; and he continued to serve until 9th December, 1962; when Tanganyika became a Republic. But that ‘transition period’ was usefully utilized by sending me out for a three-month practical training attachment, at the British Parliament, the House of Commons at Westminster in London.
Will be continued next week.
piomsekwa@gmail.com / 0754767576.